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Monday, October 24, 2016

Military also considering tying promotion opportunities to physical fitness levels

Soldiers deploying for an upcoming Canadian peace operation in Africa may be subject to physical testing beyond the baseline tests given to members of the Canadian Forces — and there is a “valid concern” about whether soldiers are fit enough now to meet those requirements, iPolitics has learned.

According to a senior Canadian Armed Forces official, the military is considering whether to impose battle fitness testing for soldiers preparing to head to Africa on one of the UN peace operations underway there. But in light of a new report that found 75 per cent of regular force members had a Body Mass Index that put them in the ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’ categories, questions are being asked about whether Canadian troops are fit enough for a high-risk mission such as the one in Mali.

“I think it’s going to be something that is looked at and looked at seriously,” the official said.

A similar test was used to assess battle fitness prior to deployments to Afghanistan. It measures physical fitness above and beyond the baseline testing soldiers are required to undergo in the Canadian Forces and includes tests — like carrying sandbags — that simulate the physical environment of combat.

Canadian Forces members take a break while on patrol in Afghanistan (file photo - Hill Times)

The official said that there shouldn’t be an issue with frontline units that would be tapped first to deploy, since they’re generally in peak physical shape.

However, there could be a problem with certain specialized trades that also may need to deploy to support the main force.

The challenge is twofold: The Canadian Forces have been getting recruits who are less physically fit than in past years — but at the same time, existing CF members are also becoming increasingly sedentary.

Unlike the American military culture, where there is little tolerance for members who do not maintain peak physical fitness, the Canadian military is more forgiving and less inclined to force members to get back in shape.

That needs to change, the official said, and the Canadian Forces are now exploring the idea of tying physical fitness to promotion opportunities to encourage members to stay in shape.

“It speaks to that the institution is starting to realize this is a problem,” the official said. “We recognize the trend is going the wrong way.”

According to the new CF fitness report, 49 per cent of Canadian Forces regular force personnel were classed as overweight based on their self-reported BMI, while another 25 per cent fell into the category of ‘obese’.

Just over six per cent of regular force members were also rated ‘morbidly obese’ in the latest report, compared to just 3.6 per cent in 2004.

One of the criticisms often leveled at the use of BMI statistics to gauge individual fitness is that it’s an over-broad measure that may not be accurate for every individual.

BMI statistics also can’t tell the difference between high muscle mass and body fat; a BMI rating can put people who are very thin but heavily muscled higher on the scale than someone who carries more body fat and less muscle since fat weighs less than muscle.

In the American military, soldiers who are flagged as falling into the overweight BMI categories are called in for a second round of testing that can capture muscle mass. From there, military officials can assess whether there is actually a problem with the soldier’s fitness level.

And in any case, BMI inaccuracies are not the driving issue behind the trends this report portrayed, as was noted within the document itself.

“The vast majority of males and females with an obese BMI perceived themselves as carrying excess body fat,” the report said. “High muscle mass could, therefore, explain some cases of overweightedness in males, but is unlikely to account for many cases of obesity in either males or females.”